


blessings wait for you

by softtofustew



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst, ChanLix, Fluff, M/M, alternative universe, kinda brief though, like pretty angsty, mentions of ot9, straykids - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 16:50:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15441483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softtofustew/pseuds/softtofustew
Summary: every day, chan wakes up alone, dreary, in his bedroom back in melbourne, australia.every alternative day, chan wakes up in the arms of his best friend, felix, in their dorm room back in seoul, south korea.





	blessings wait for you

**Author's Note:**

> title: for you // 3racha  
> heyo!! this is my first commission for a stray kids AU fanfic, and also one of the few most confusing AUs i've done tbh. i hope you enjoy it!!

“seven more minutes ‘till midnight,” felix hums, stroking the top of chan’s hair, who’s sprawled across the couch, his head on his friend’s lap. on the telly, some crappy ‘80s comedy adds yet another cheesy clapback, the light from the tv illuminating both their faces. the clock above it goes tick, tock. tick, tock. 

chan hums back quietly, shifting slightly so felix’s fingers are now tracing the hair at the nape of his neck. the warmth emanating from the other heats chan’s cheeks from the winter cold raging monstrously outside, where the others had headed out to an hour prior to go drunk late-night grocery shopping. “so what?”

“hm?” felix trails circles down chan’s neck. a shiver chillier than winter runs down his spine.

“any last words,” chan mumbles around the groggy sleepiness getting to his head, his eyes still focused on the clock, second hand ticking away; tick, tock, tick, tock it goes.  _ oh, how if time just stopped right then and there _ . a thought that emerges tirelessly every alternative day under this very same roof, with the very same person.

felix’s voice is even lower as he thumbs chan’s cheek slowly. heat thrums vibrantly there. “hm… what do you wanna do tomorrow’s tomorrow? i was thinking maybe watching that new avengers movie. we could, like, cry and shit over half-assed popcorn and a tear-jerking plotline,” he suggests confidently, all at once. chan doesn’t even have to nod; the glimpse of his eyes casting upwards to meet felix’s downcast gaze says it all.

tomorrow’s tomorrow. coined two years ago.  _ what do you wanna do tomorrow’s tomorrow? _

half a minute.

with ten seconds on the clock, chan grins a little, lets his dimple show, lets felix rest his hands back on either side of his body on the couch. “sounds good enough. see ya tomorrow’s tomorrow.”

“good night, hyung. see you.”

and in this way, chan disintegrates into nothing, white blinding every expanse of his very vision.

 

**_______________**

 

if you asked chris bang chan where the hell he goes every alternative day, why he disappears on tuesday, thursday and saturday this week, then monday, wednesday and friday the next, he’ll only smile at you softly and utter some lame excuse. “parents visited”, “felt sick”, “stayed at home”. never once did he ever tell anyone about how one day, he’d fall asleep, lonely, in his creaky bed in his bedroom in melbourne, australia, then wake up the next in the arms of said best friend on the most silky of duvets in seoul, south korea.

_ oceans apart. _

really, chan himself doesn’t know much, can’t say much. how it began traces back to about two years ago: enter depressed bang chan trudging into his room, tear stains still splayed across his cheeks as he shuts the door close, the remnants of an hour prior still fresh blood in his veins. makes a ruckus; throws away all the photo frames and climbs into bed, thrashing at the blankets and that fucking pillow she had decided to sew together three months ago. jams out to emo rock music just because he can and he doesn’t give a fuck about his neighbours. falls asleep in bed, still dressed, because he’s too exhausted by the most depressing break-up in all his nineteen years of living.

when light had filled his vision the following morning, a body had been thrown precariously over his own on foreign bedsheets, and chan had screamed, hence startled the stranger, leading to more screams and hollers and  _ “ohmygodwhothefuckareyou” _ ’s and  _ “holyshitdidwedothedo” _ ’s and  _ “idon’trememberohmygod” _ ’s.

chan had eyed the boy up and down: dark brown hair falling past wide, chestnut eyes, lips chapped from sleep, drool stains on cheek, voice deep and thick of an accent that reminded him of home. thus, they’d researched, they’d theorised every thing possible in the book. when felix had announced that he couldn’t find bang chan’s profile on facebook, couldn’t find him and his 500k+ subscribed youtube channel anywhere on the net, he’d almost fainted right there and then.

“who  _ are _ you?” felix had asked, hesitance heavy in his accent. australian accent, chan raises his eyebrow in surprise at the realisation of it.

“i-i don’t know,” he’d answered, finally, head dizzy from the events of the day.

at midnight, though, they’d falled asleep at the computer desk one second, and then the next chan found himself back at home, his body on his bed, his eyes widening at the absence of his newfound stranger-from-some-unworldly-universe.

 

**_______________**

 

it’s 11:54 in the evening, and chan’s almost positively bursting from excitement at the prospect of seeing felix again, seeing his other dormmates. when they’d found out about chan, found about him disappearing and reappearing every other day, they’d managed to put two and two together and had screamed to the ends of hell and back. nevertheless, chan likes their company, likes the hilarious chemistry that he has with them whenever he goes back to whatever universe that is. 

chan glimpses down at his socked feet. hamburgers. he frowns at them, wondering if he should get them changed. something smarter. and  _ shit _ , he’s forgotten that he’s headed for wintry seoul and not his summertime melbourne, thus hurriedly makes a mad dash for his cupboard, rips it open to rummage through. after much consideration, he settles for a white turtleneck, some thicker slacks and yellow shin-high socks hidden under his pants.

with three more minutes to spare, he checks himself out in the mirror. should he run a straightener through that bush of his hair? on second thought, that’ll take too long. plus, felix mentioned before that he liked his ‘natural poofy poofiness’ before promptly running a hand through it.

yeah, that’ll do.

as the bedside clock strikes midnight, chan feels the familiar flurry humming throughout his whole body and soul, his heart hammering away as usual as white fills his sight, and he’s sent to a sort of drowsy daze; the next second, fresh and awaken, his eyes peel open to see the same boy lying down beside him, feels the legs entangled amongst the sheets as sunshine streams through the blinds in the room. chan sighs in relief: the whole ‘transporting-to-some-other-universe’ has always stressed him out, as if the world might throw him into some other alternative completely stripped of life or something.

at the breath fanning his face, felix’s nose scrunches. “your breath stinks,” he grumbles, voice low and gravelly as usual as he struggles to open his eyes. chan’s heart does a somersault or two, but merely for the fact that felix is so close to his face that it’s just that bit unnerving. yeah. nothing else, really.

felix rolls over onto his other side, back now facing chan. “are we still watching the movie?”

“yeah,” chan replies, a bit surprised. “i didn’t say no, did i?”

felix lifts a shoulder in a shrug before scrambling to his feet. “just because. i booked the tickets already. we should get going,” he mumbles softly, his eyes straying everywhere else, anywhere else but chan. chan’s lips turn downward, but he lifts himself to his full height, feels the warmth of the heater and carpet under his socked feet as the two of them shuffle out of the dorm room in their own quiet trance.

 

**_______________**

 

a year ago, chan finds himself sharing an ice cream with felix, despite the chilly autumn air drifting into the skylines of seoul as they stroll down the paved walkways along the han river. the older one grins at felix, before swooping down to take a lick of the ice cream cone in the other’s hand. “you wanna know something?”

“ hm?” felix slow his pace to a halt. chan stops too.

“i feel like… like this is some sort of alternate universe. parallel universe, however you want to call it,” chan muses, before glancing at the water rushing down the river. the clear body of water almost winks sunlight into his eyes, but his gaze remains there, even as felix chews on his lower lip at the consideration.

felix clears his throat. “well… it’s plausible,” he shrugs, before taking a bite out of the ice cream. “figures, considering neither one of us exists in the other’s world. why though?” he frowns. “why me? and why you?”

a breeze sends the leaves rustling and door chimes of shops close by tinkling lightly in the background. “i don’t know,” chan admits sheepishly, his eyes meeting felix’s own bearing into him. “what… were you, i dunno, going through a rough time last year? before i appeared in your room?”

with the cone left, felix takes a bite out of it, ignoring the bit that falls to the floor. “huh. funny you mention it, actually. i just got out of some emotional funk around the time you appeared in my room,” he answers stately. he purses his lips together. “why? you forming a theory in your mind?”

chan’s head spins a bit more. “y-yeah, actually.” is the universe playing with his head, or does it all sound too familiar, too perfect, too  _ right _ to have been a coincidence? to have a heartbroken one meet a heartwarming other? is that the whole point of this travelling to alternate universes every alternative day? is it really?

chan may never know, but he still lets felix lay his head against his shoulder, freshly-dyed blond hair tickling his chin. he doesn’t mind it the least bit, though. they both lean against the other like this,  _ an impasse _ , really, as they stare out at the river and the depths of the waters. when felix finally lifts his head to meet chan’s sight again, he asks, “so do you know why it’s us?”

“no,” chan kicks at a pebble on the ground before smiling a little to himself. “look on the bright side, though. i got to meet you and the others, yeah?”

“i guess so,” felix grins back, eyes glinting off the sunshine, dark and bright all in an instance. something passes in the torches of his eyes before flickering away. a sign, perhaps, but chan ignores it, instead snatching the remaining ice cream cone in his friend’s grasp and dashing off, leaving felix yelling and laughing and running right after him. “give it back, you piece of shit!” their hollers and giggles mingle in the still autumn air that day.

that night, when chan falls asleep once again in felix’s arms, he thinks, w _ hatever this is, whatever this ethereal force is, it’s pretty nice. _

 

**_______________**   
  


the movie should be relatively okay, but chan still squirms in his seat after felix wordlessly bought the popcorn, collected their tickets and took his place beside chan near the back of the cinema hall. the ads begin rolling, and felix grabs at a handful of popcorn from the bucket in chan’s hands, munching away by himself. even when the most hilarious of cringey adverts pops up, chan’s unaccompanied chuckles instantly simmer down upon realisation that the other remains silent.

they’re already halfway through the movie, and the uncomfortable tension between them only thickens with every ticking second. it strangely reminds him of the nights when they count down the seconds ‘till chan sees white, but it’s different: this is awkward, unnatural. emotionless.

so when the next time felix reaches out to grab at the popcorn, chan catches his friend’s wrist in a firm grip, the movement itself already spitting out stop. stunned, the blond boy stares wide-eyed at chan, and chan almost trembles under his friend’s insistent stare: surprise, anguish. hurt.

“what,” he mouths as the fight scene unfolds before them. the light dances along felix’s eyes, nose, lips. traces the outline of his body all the same. chan tries to muster the courage to spew out the words in his head.

“what’s up?” chan hisses back, his eyebrows furrowing.

felix tsks. “nothing,” he retorts a little louder than intended, and the couple to their left shushes them sharply. chan bites his lip. he can’t be left hanging, not like this. even when felix attempts to retrieve his wrist, chan still grasps onto him tightly, knuckles white. “felix,” chan urges persistently.

“stop it-”

“-what’s going on, man?” chan asks almost pleadingly. “look, if it’s-”

“-it’s nothing-”

“-doesn’t seem like nothing-”

“-can you just shut up alread-”

“-you can tell me anything-”

“-i think,” felix firmly rips himself from chan’s fierce grip on him, his eyes now blazing with fury, “i’ll go to the washroom.” with that, he clambers over chan’s thighs blockading the aisle down to the exit, and chan doesn’t even have the energy to grab onto him again, lets him dash out of the hall, into the light outside.

outside.

 

**_______________**

 

three months ago, felix finds himself strumming the guitar at midnight when a thump is heard from his bed. without even a flick of his head, he murmurs, “hey.” when he swivels around, his eyes land on chan, deep in sleep, curled up on his bed, hugging air as a snore materialises from him. chuckling to himself, he sets the instrument down to crawl into bed beside him.

felix stays at eye-level with chan, heads so close together that they almost bump. his eyes look over chan’s own, closed with a smattering of lashes, and small lips in the most adorable of pouts. Instinctively, he reaches a hand out to run through the other’s curly mop of hair, waking him up.

“h-hey.” chan’s voice is low, cracky, but felix giggles all the same as chan slowly struggles his eyes open to focus on his friend. “it’s morning already?”

“midnight, actually,” felix admits, before allowing his arm to fall back down onto his own side. he smiles a little. “sorry i woke you. i was busy when you arrived.”

“mm.” chan wordlessly wraps an arm around felix’s lithe figure, around his torso and tugs him just a bit nearer - felix relents, shuffling close. the warmth of their bodies intertwine and send felix ablaze as chan nuzzles his head in the crook of the boy’s neck. “felix,” he mumbles softly, lips brushing slightly against skin. “can i ask you something.”

the younger one swallows down bile. “yeah?”

“what was that funk you mentioned you were in before i randomly appeared in your room?” chan questions, lifting his head slightly to meet felix’s gaze burning holes into him. “i was thinking, like, the reason for all this.” at ‘this’, he waves a hand dismissively at the bedroom, and felix glimpses around: posters of bands taped to his wall, a pile of unread comic books lying on the floor, his guitar set against his computer desk, which unsurprisingly sports an array of pens and paper all over.

“um,” felix inches a bit further away. “just… a bad break-up, i guess? took me a month or so to get over it, really. i swore to myself i wouldn’t date after,” he replies, sombre, gravely, before watching chan’s eyes glaze over his face. he feels the breath almost knocked out of him when nothing is said from his friend from another dimension.

silently, chan’s arm tugs to embrace felix even fiercer, so much so that their foreheads touch, and now felix  _ really _ can’t breathe, feels like he’s suffocating in the minimal space between him and chan, and it  _ hurts _ . hurts good, in fact.

“huh.” the lone syllable tumbles from chan’s lips before his eyelids flutter close. “no wonder.”

felix doesn’t understand. he doesn’t understand, and maybe he doesn’t really care that he doesn’t understand, for he too closes his eyes shut, letting the arm cradling his body and the quiet snores from his friend drown out his thoughts and dreams to a sleepy haze.

 

**_______________**

 

“hey,  _ hey _ !” chan abruptly grabs felix’s wrist in the empty hallway and causes felix to swivel around a 180 degree turn on the heel of his worn-out converse. “what’s wrong?” chan pleads, concern laced tightly in his constricted throat. he tastes bile as felix’s frown deepens. “you know you can tell me anything, right-”

“-that’s the thing,” felix cuts him off, tugging his wrist away from chan’s grip. “i can tell you anything, but i don’t  _ have _ to, do i?” he’s breathless, his heart pounding louder than any drum as he stares at chan square in the eyes. “it’s nothing, okay? it’s stupid, and it’s nothing-”

“-if it’s such a big  _ nothing _ , then what’s stopping you from saying it?” chan retorts, voice raised. his words echo throughout the vacant corridor, devoid of people, just two people from different worlds staring right at each other, both their heads seeming to scream the same words but lips silent and unmoving, until felix’s curl into a snarl and he steps forward

and kisses chan square on the lips.

when their lips brush against each other, chan reminisces in the memory of a time about half a year back when felix hummed along to a song he and a few other of his friends had composed, some lyrics running along the lines of  _ blessings wait for you _ . maybe it’s just pent up frustration over this whole period of time, maybe it’s been a long ass time, maybe it’s been months and months of seeing each other only ever on alternative days and yearning for more days together, but chan really thinks he’s blessed as he kisses felix back with just as much fervor, languid. torrid. sweet and warm.

and he sees white.

“what the-” chan shoves felix off of him, his vision blurring until felix is nothing but a dot in his sight, gasping for breath and for the realisation that chan is fading away and dissipating into nothing at barely noon on a wintry cold morning in february, only to reappear back home, on his bed, at 11:54 a.m.

 

**_______________**

 

two months.

two months, of chan racking his head to figure out why the fuck he can’t go back, why he can’t feel the thrumming of his body being sucked back into the other dimension anymore, why he can’t feel the feel of lips against his own anymore. two months, of chan waking up in a mindless wreck, of chan falling asleep to 3am heavy angsty rock music, of chan scribbling lyrics and lyrics and lyrics but nothing, absolutely nothing is about anything else but waking up in another world in the arms of a boy he’s fell in love with.

two months, and as april knocks upon unwelcome doors, chan disentangles himself from his sheets and thus mindlessly runs through his morning routine. he’s drained, drained of emotions, drained of memories as he stumbles out into the bright sunshine, hands shoved into the pockets of his ripped jeans, hair uncombed and shirt wrinkled.

he’s drained of the person he’s relied on for years.

_ where are you? _

 

**_______________**

 

two months.

two months, of felix crying his heart out, to figure out why the fuck he isn’t coming back, why he doesn’t wake up to snores and morning hugs and ear-shrieking laughter and cringy jokes and breakfast in bed. two months, of felix waking up in cold sweat, of felix falling asleep after drink after drink after drink, of felix recording his voice until it sounds like it might snap apart into two, of felix singing about nothing else but waking up in the arms of a boy from another world, the boy he’s fell in love with.

two months, and as april knocks upon unwelcome doors, felix is pouring cereal for himself, and just as minho and jisung stroll into the kitchen, a thrumming overtakes his body. he drops the bowl, letting it shatter to pieces. the pieces vapourise into thin air before him, and when his gaze lifts from the floor, glancing around at his surroundings the next second, he’s surrounded by unfamiliar skylines, unfamiliar people, unfamiliar voices and thoughts and everything else in between.

_ where am i? _

 

**_______________**

 

four months ago, felix finds himself scrolling through his twitter feed when chan abruptly plonks his arse down beside felix on the couch, flicking the tv on and turning to face his friend. “felix, i think i got it.”

baffled, felix peers up. “what about it?” he asks.

“i think i know why i got surped into here. this dimension.” chan’s eyes are wide, filled with hope and elation. “around the time you recovered from your break-up, i just got into one. a heartbroken one meets a healing another. it sounds hella cheesy, but it’s worth a try, yeah?” he explains whole-heartedly, gushing at his own theory.

felix frowns. “sounds plausible, but… you’ve recovered from your break-up a long time ago, no?” he points out.

chan pouts, undeterred. “maybe something  _ else _ is stopping us from stopping to see each other,” chan thinks aloud, shrugging before throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulder. heat courses mercilessly through the boy’s veins. “some anticurse or something. maybe the world wants us to, like, destroy each other? or maybe go grocery shopping together? oh,  _ shit _ !” he suddenly exclaims, clasping his hands together. “maybe they want us to get together and we’ll, like, get separated and they’ll think ‘oh, yeah, that’s pretty smart’ because they’re some sort of satanic cult?”

at his friend’s far-fetched theories, felix has to laugh and input his opinion, “no one puts two together just to see them wrecked in separation.”

how wrong he was.

 

**_______________**

 

as chan exits his favourite coffeehouse with a double-shot latte, warm in his hands, he takes a deep breath of the cooling air that inhibits him before walking down the pavement. when he nears a crosswalk, he halts, humming as he waits for the red light to flicker green. 

for a split second, his eyes haze over the bustling crowd waiting to cross at the other end.  _ just dust _ , he thinks, reaching up to wipe at his eyes, but even as he rubs the offending particles away, something gleams somewhere amongst the crowd, and as he squints, the stoplight turns green.

footsteps rush all around him.

sucked into the flow of passers-by, chan’s feet walk him across the street to the other end, and as his vision clears, he sees a striking mop of orange hair poking out from the crowd of dark-haired strangers. that wasn’t there before.

time almost shudders to a standstill as chan’s feet finally find their place at the other end of the road, his eyes fixated at the boy, in all his floppy hair and wide eyes and unmistakable freckles staring right back at him. time, chan thinks, almost completely stops, and in an instance it feels as if all the blood and heart in his soul leaves his body as he stands here, facing the boy from the other world, the other dimension, the other universe altogether.

 

**_______________**

 

two months ago, felix finds himself biting his lip in anguish as he books the tickets for the avengers movie, a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead. he’s going to do this. he’s actually going to do this; he’s going to finally gather whatever bravery and dignity in his very body to confess to the boy he’s become so very attached to in the past course of two years.

he’s going to do it. he doesn’t know how. but here’s what he does know: that chan is probably the kindest person from an alternate universe he could ever befriend, that chan is probably the most caring and concerned friend from an ethereal world, that chan is probably the best person felix could ever love in this entire world, with all its alternate universes altogether.

is he really going to risk it all?

 

**_______________**

 

“c-chan,” felix stutters, his hand combing his hair - wait, it’s orange. it was yellow just a second ago-

“ _ felix _ ?” chan blurts incredulously.  _ this isn’t happening. how did… how did felix even- _

_ enter the impasse _ . they’re torn between reality and fantasy, torn between two alternate universes, torn between time and space altogether as everyone around them begins to disarray into blood and flesh and bone. the skylines all around them are stripped to their bare skeletons, the sky overhead casting dark and light all at once.

the ache in chan’s chest returns vividly, begging to break free from the cage of his body as he steps closer to felix. before him, felix is transcendent: orange hair glinting back to blond like a tic, then a flash of dark before back to orange; his clothes are flickering like an old film.  _ he’s stuck _ , chan realises, stuck between different worlds.

“chan. bang chan,” felix’s voice is high and low all at once; a wretched sob. “chan. where are you?”

without a word, the coffee cup in chan’s hands topples to the ground as he reaches out to felix’s hands, allows his hands to curl around felix’s own, and the spark ignites. everything materialises: the sky surps into a light blue and clouds, the bricks are stacked into buildings, the blood, sweat and tears return colour to the passers-by around them, unaware of the two holding hands along the walkway of the city of melbourne, australia.

“hey,” chan whispers, his eyes running along the expanse of felix’s now pale pink hair, freckles even more prominent against his skin, his eyes still as wide and full of wonder as before. “hey. i'm here."

“hey,” felix pronounces slowly, his voice cracking a little bit. “what… what was all that about?”

“honestly?” chan tugs at the other’s hands, leaning closer. “i don’t know, and frankly i don’t care.” he encloses the miniscule space between them to kiss felix lightly on the lips, once, brief, but full of colour and emotion. and time. and life.

“so. what about tomorrow’s tomorrow?”

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i know most people think of chanlix as more of a bromance than an actual ship, but if you did enjoy this, callcallcall me at:
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/softtofustew_) // [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/softtofustew_) // [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/softtofustew)


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